The Iron Islands is a region of paradoxes. It is filled with natural resources, which it's inhabitant never used to it's fullest. It's the least populated region in Westeros, but also has the highest population density. It was one of the most thoroughly conquered kingdom subjugated by the andals, but one of only two regions that was not converted to the seven.
To explore the reason for all of these contradictions, one need to understand the islands, their history, their people, and the resource that defines them above all others.
The Iron Islands were first colonized by first men colonizers called the Ironborn, sometime before or during the Age of Heroes. Unlike their mainland cousins, the Ironborn did not abandon their old religion in favour of accepting the gods of the forest, instead choosing to remain followers of their original deity, simply known as the Drowned God.
It is not an overstatement to say that all of of the Ironborn's problems throughout their history, and the waste of their potential, was a result of the worship of this diety.
The faith of the Drowned God, was a religion that was by one of my fellow historians described as a "Cult devoted to rape, slavery, raiding and a refusal of development.". This is a judgment I fully agree with, as it is hard to imagine a more backwards, evil, degenerate religion than the faith of the drowned God.
If one were to write a book and make a fictional religion as evil as inhumane as possible, you would still be hard pressed to make one that was more monstrous than the Cult of the Drowned God.
The drowned God's worship was heavily devoted to the idea of the racial supremacy of the Ironborn in everything. All lowing the acquisition of slaves, though not the breeding or trading of them, which in turn meant that new slaves had to be taken as captives in New raids on other people.
That the faith not only allowed, but heavily encouraged the enslavement of non Ironborn neighbors, Unsurprisingly made the Ironborn despised by all of mainland Westeros, a hatred they've never really shaken off, and before Aenys, they didn't even attempt to do so.
The religion of the drowned God also claims that farming is a sin that must only be done by slaves, which, as anyone with any knowledge of economics knows, makes any worthwhile economic growth impossible, and through it's history would be the downfall of all of the Ironborns attempts at empire.
The first Ironborn empire formed as the first men kingdoms of Westeros was only beginning to form. And it was extremely successful, ruling all the western Westerosi coastline, from the wall to the mountains of Dorne.
In an Era where the first petty kings were struggling to rule more land than a day's ride from their stronghold, the Ironborn empire and it's vast territory stood out as incredible feat of conquest.
The reason for this massive empire was twofold. A massive, powerful, unchallenged fleet, and a incredible amount of Iron, allowing for wast amounts of heavy infantry.
During the age of Heroes, the first men almost always used bronze, not knowing how to smelt iron or steel. In comparison, the Ironborn not only knew how to do Just that, but also sat on more Iron than all the rest of Westeros combined.
This lead to the Ironborn to field armies dressed in full iron chainmail, in an Era where the first men still used bronze scales.
In other words, they took full advantage of a technological advantage they had over their neighbors, just like the Lengi would do millenia afterwards during their conquests.
The second advantage the Ironborn had, was a giant fleet of ships, which almost all Ironborn knew how to sail with. The ancient Snake like hull of the Longship was capable of carrying a large amount of warriors, while also allowing the sailors to land almost anywhere there was a beach.
This allowed them to transport ironclad warriors quickly, to anywhere in their empire, at short notice.
Making this advantage even larger was that the other First Men generally hated and feared the seas, and did not make ships more advanced than a fishing boat. This allowed the Ironborn to rule their empire unchallenged, not only could they meet their enemy anywhere, with better technology, but even if they were defeated, their enemy couldn't chase them down to their homeland.
All of this translated to a very powerful empire, in a time where weak kingdoms were the norm.
So then, one must ask why did it fall?
General historical revisionism credits the formation and growing power of the realms of the western coasts finally reaching a point where they could defeat the Ironborn, annex, and fortify their previous land. And while this isn't untrue, it is an explanation which ignores the reality of the frailness of the Ironborn empire in favour nationalistic pride.
Which is the topic at the root of the matter. Nationalistic pride. While much and more debate has been had at the subject of just how powerful nationalism was in pre conquest Westeros, one thing is very certain. The Ironborn empire had none of it outside the Iron Islands themselves.
The first empire could conceivably have fostered a national identity, just like the rest of Westeros did, unfortunately for the Ironborn, their religion pretty much made this quest doomed from the start, if there were even any Ironborn kings who actually tried this during the period.
The Ironborn, following their religious teachings, neither treated their new subjects like actual subjects, nor was there a large scale movement amongst the Ironborn to colonize their new provinces with actual Ironborn.
Instead, Ironborn who actually settled on the mainland were treated with contempt, while their non Ironborn subjects were treated like tributaries to be squeezed for as much resources as humanly possible, rather than as vassals and subjects with rights who should be protected.
This meant that none of the Ironborn mainland holdings actually had any Ironborn majority, nor were the people there proud to part of their nation. On the contrary, pretty much all of them would instead eagerly embrace the national Identities of their mainland Brothers.
Most famous of these vassal houses, who would break culturally with their Ironborn overlords, was of course house Lannister, founded by Lord Lann the clever, of Casterly Rock, whose dynasty would forge the kingdom of the Westerlands.
And though the Ironborn would for the longest time hold on to their island Conquests, the mainlander provinces was lost as they bent the knee to whichever was the most powerful king of the region.
In the west, the lions of Lannister and Reyne. In the North the direwolves of Winterfell, and Axes of Barrowton shielded the coasts.
In the Reach, all eventually bent before the Greenhand, who were the first to take the fight to the sea, and conquer the islands of the coasts, taking and colonizing the shield Islands, and liberating the Arbor.
The Westerlands followed suit, with Kayce and Bear Island respectively.
Thus, the first Ironborn empire came to an end. A direct result of bad administration and refusal to acknowledge their mainlander subjects as human beings, having brought down the first westosi empire.
This would be a recurring theme in the three Ironborn empires.
The second Ironborn empire was far less impressive, though famously it did manage the feat of wiping out the Justman dynasty, and thusly destroyed the Riverlands at their greatest height, so one should not sell their military might short.
The second empire, formed under the house of Hoare following the Andal invasions, was almost exclusively a marinetime empire, as the Ironborn began expanding their navies, and took advantage of mainlander weakness to reconquer the islands of Western Westeros.
This empire however, was largely built on the times of weakness of their neighbors, as shown by their conquest of the shield Islands, the Arbor, and most impressive of all, Oldtown itself. All of these feats were possible thanks to the legendary Civil War In the Reach at the time between the Peakes and Manderlys.
In the North bear island was taken thanks to the burning of the northern fleet by Brandon the burner. While Kayce fell thanks to an accidental fire burning down the lannister fleet.
All of these conquest however, was fleeting, as the mainlander kingdoms would come back in strength, each of them capable of fielding far more men than the Ironborn ever could.
The Reach, North and Westerlands all scoured their lands clean of the Ironborn, made infinitely easier by the smallfolk despising their new overlords.
Thus perished the second Ironborn empire. However, there are things of note that began during the second empire that showed a change in Ironborn doctrine.
Unlike the first empire, the empire under Hoares seems to have operated more in tune with standard Westerosi feudalism, with their small folk being regarded as part of the Kingdom, and not subhuman.
This can largely be attributed to house Hoare, who in general seems to have been interested in learning from their previous mistakes. However, even here we see the limits of Ironborn governance, as during this period the small folk were accepted, their religion was not, as the starry sept was sacked and the high septon drowned.
This, unsurpsingly, made the Ironborn even more hated than they already had been.
In truth, the second empire was doomed from the start, as all the land they conquered had at that point long since adopted and come to identify with their fellow respective cultures.
They were thusly not able even to utilize the full resources of their new lands, due to an incredibly hostile local populace.
If the Ironborn were to forge a strong, stable empire, they would need to rule a land with a massive population that did not hate being ruled by Ironborn.
The Ironborn would have their chance at this during the start of the third Ironborn empire… And they would completely fail at it, as we will cover shortly below.
Before we go over the rise of the third empire however, we need to cover the developments on the islands during the second empire and after it's fall.
The drowned God's faith, on top of all the rest of it's stupid edicts, also forbid trade, which, before the rose of House Hoare, meant the islands didn't really have any interaction with the rest of the world that wasn't raiding or conquest.
This changed with the hoares, who generally have been big on trading with the outside world. This Unsurprisingly put the reigning dynasty on odds with the conservatives on the island, who would always force the king to back down from truly embracing a trade focused economy.
This lead to a cycle where trade focused kings would bring wealth and prosperity to the islands, their successors would continue to push for more trade and reforms, until they pushed too far, and either backed down or was killed.
Nowhere is this cycle more obvious than the Era of the three Harmunds, where two generations worth of amazing wealth and progress was brought down when harmund III outlawed raving and the taking of saltwives. He was subsequently overthrown by a religious mob, mutilated and replaced with his brother, who mutilated his own mother(A Lannister princess) and sent back home as a living proof the "Old Way" (as the conservative Ironborn called their religious practices.) was alive anew, and all the reforms of the Harmunds were undone.
The Lannister response would lead to the death of 9 out of every 10th person on the Island, through a mix between death through a hostile invasion, deliberate destruction of their food stores, famine, and winter.
A better example of how backwards and self destructive the faith of the drowned God was, you will not find.
The centuries following the invasion would again depend entirely upon trade for the islands to even stay alive. And as before, conservatives would always undo the work of reformers in the end.
This cycle would continue for millennia, until the age of Qhorwyn The Cunning, and his son Harwyn Hardhand.
Qhorwyn was like many before him a trade focused man and reformer, but unlike most trader kings of the island, he also greatly invested large amounts coin into drastically increasing his military might.
His own justification for doing so was that "War is bad for trade. Weakness invites attack. To have peace, we must be strong."
In this one can see a man who presumably was planning to prepare for the conservative backlash of his reforms, by having a military might none on the islands could challenge.
His son however, had other plans. Namely plans of conquest.
Sensing a golden opportunity in the Riverlands, where the storm King's grip was tethering on the brink of collapse, Harwyn landed somewhere between 7000-10000 warriors in the Riverlands to take the throne by right of conquest.
Two things to note about this conquest.
The first is that Harwyn did have not insignificant local support for his claim, as many Riverlander lords supported his conquest as an alternative to the hated stormlanders. House Bracken, and their supporters were under the impression, that they would become independent under the red horse, but recordings have proven that many of the local lords acclaimed Hoare as their king from the start, whether due to fear, or just wanting centuries of storm lander rule to end.
The second, is that Harwyn landed with an army fully equipped for battle, completely armored in full plated steel, a feat that at the time could only have been realistically done by the Iron Islands.
Both of these factors played large factors in Harwyn's complete conquest of the Riverlands, as he time and again smashed opposing riverlords and Stormlander armies.
Armed with local support, up to 10000 men in plate armor, and the ability to move up and down the Riverlands on long ships at great speed, Harwyn established himself as the master of Trident.
Following the decisive battle at fairmarket, Harwyn declared himself king of the Isles and the Rivers, creating the third Ironborn empire.
At this point, had Harwyn simply declared religious tolerance for all, and accepted the rivermen as equal under the law, he might very well have founded a strong new political union, which may very well have lead to the Riverlands and the Iron Islands to have remained united following the conquest.
All the pieces were there for a strong new kingdom, with the Riverlands, and the Iron Islands complimenting each other remarkably well. The Riverlands had an enormous population and food production the Isles lacked, while the islands had a powerful navy to transport troops and goods remarkably quickly, as well as the ability to equip an astonishing number of men quickly in arms and armor.
Harwyn however, did not do this. Instead he made the Rivermen below the Ironborn in status, in effect introducing a full blown caste system, he also made it abundantly clear that the Drowned God was the only religion that mattered in his empire, while at the same time not actually protelyzing said religion in his domain.
In other words, it was the worst of both worlds, and in the long term, it would have doomed the kingdom of the Isles and rivers, even without Aegon's coming.
The best thing that can be said for Harwyn's state building, is that unlike the first ironborn empire, he had the good sense to actually begin colonizing the Riverlands with Ironborn settlers.
Harwyn's conquest is a perfect embodiment of the Iron Islands strengths and weaknesses.
Thanks to their navy, they were capable of transporting large amounts of troops at short notice, and thanks to their massive iron reserves, they can produce enormous amounts of metal work, provided they have time. They also showed themselves to be capable fighting on both land and sea provided they have a capable commander at the head.
On the other hand, their backwards religion also doomed their conquest to an inevitable decline. The faith of the drowned God proved time and time again that it simply wasn't capable of living in peace with other religions, and would always lead it's followers to make stupid, stupid decisions in the name of Ironborn supremacy.
The full story of the third empire is a relatively boring one, but it can be summed up in one sentence. A squandered legacy.
The kingdom of the Isles and rivers had the potential to be one of the great kingdoms of Westeros, possessing enormous resources and a massive population, it could have been one of the greatest trading nations on the planet.
Instead, it wasted all it's potential on failed conquests and on a large castle that fell the same year it was finished.
Though Harrenhal's destruction is marked as the definite end of the final Ironborn empire, the actual true destruction is also largely on the shoulders of rivermen, both lords and small folk, who following Aegon's landing, began an extermination campaign against any Ironborn settlers in the Riverlands.
In total it is estimated that mayhaps as many as 200 000 Ironborn living in the Riverlands were butchered by mobs and knights during the events of Aegon's conquest, most during the events leading up to the destruction of House Hoare, and the rest during the Dornish war when the King's sight was turned southwards.
No riverlords stood up for these Ironborn small folk, whether they be farmers of fishermen, and those that survived generally fleed the region to go back to the Iron Islands, or fled across the Narrow sea.
Thus, the Ironborn's conquest of the Riverlands came to a permanent end.
Back home, the extinction of house Hoare led to a Civil War, and the rise of House Greyjoy as lord paramounts, and later Grand Dukes of the Iron Islands.
-
During the first council, Aenys strategy for reform in the Iron Islands were generally about two things.
Economic growth, and spreading the faith of the seven.
Aenys saw clearly that the Islands future lay in the metal of which the islands were named after. Iron.
The amount of Iron produced on the Iron Islands in proportion of the total amount produced across Planetos, is higher than the corresponding amount of gold produced by the entire Westerlands.
Now in modern day, an estimated 86% of the entire World's iron comes from the Islands, and given the fact that Iron is the most used metal there is, there is always a large market for it, just as there was during Aenys day.
However, during the days of Aenys despite the massive amount of Iron produced, the way it went about just wasn't nearly as profitable as it could be.
Rather than making Iron or steel products themselves, the Iron Islands just shipped out iron ore itself. Which, while profitable, was nothing compared to the potential that the Isles could reach if they instead focused on making fully finished steel products.
Thus he ordered large factories to be built on every island, these ones powered by steam.
By itself, thus was a provocative move on Aenys part. The second thing he did was even more so, as Aenys ordered a Sept to be built in every single settlement on the islands. Then, to protect them, he levied a law that dictated that if the Sept was destroyed, or it's septons and septas killed, or injured, the local lord would be fined a rather large sum depending upon the scale of the damages.
Needless to say, this drove a massive rift between lords and smallfolk, conservative, and pragmatists.
Aenys did not force the Ironborn to abandon the drowned god(Not yet anyhow), but already at this point he purposefully forced local lords to pick a side.
Either the lords would stand with the conservatives, and face potential economic ruin, or they would stand with the king and protect the septs and the preachers against the mobs.
And mobs there would be.
Between the first King's Council and the war of the faith, there were no less than 8 rebellions on the islands, all by smallfolk, and all of them put down violently by steel and dragonfire.
Aproximately 76 000 souls would die in revolts before the clergy of the drowned God was completely extinguished, and with them, the wehemet opposition to the faith of the seven.
Exactly when the cult of the drowned God died out is hard to tell, as post the conclusion of the war of the Faith, very few people would openly admit to believing in the outlawed deity. Most scholars estimate that the fate died out in the late 80's at the latest.
Today, the only thing remaining of the ancient heathen faith, is that many Ironborn tend to visualize the Stranger in the same form as the old deity.
--
Each of the duchies on the Iron Islands is composed of one island. Hammerhorn, Pyke and Harlaw being the most powerful.
As every single duchy(With the exception of the Lonely Light) is composed of the exact same economy, I shall not recap every single one of the duchies internal economies as I usually do, instead I will cover each islands history and lord during the period after the first King's Council.
In brief, every single island east of the lonely hope has a very simple, but strong economy. Large mining operations for Iron, coal and tin, countless factories to make finished steel products, large shipyards, and one of the most prosperous fishing industries on the planet.
--
The capital duchy of the Islands is the castle, later city of Pyke, ruled by the Grand Dukes of the Islands, house Greyjoy.
The original capital was the castle of Pyke. The castle had the rather unfortunate fate of being the first castle to be destroyed by an explosives, when local miners and the clergy rose up during the conquest of the Stepstones in the second drowned god revolt of Aenys reign.
The castle, and all it's towers were blown into the sea by mining bombs.
Though a later mining port by the name of Greyjoy City would rise on the same spot, the capital of the Grand Duchy changed to Lordsport, the only other city on the island. The ruling family of the Port, house Botley, was extinguished by the same revolt that destroyed Pyke, thus reverting it back to the crown, who subsequently gave it to house grejoy.
Before handing it over to house Greyjoy, Aenys renamed the city to Angband, the Iron hell.
The city of Angband is the Grand Duchy's capital city, the local headquarters of the Royal eastern seas trading company is located in the city, as well as a massive shipyard.
-
The city also contains a the largest and most respected naval academy in the realm. Though the army is a popular option for Ironborn men, the true military calling of the populace is Unsurprisingly the navy.
Roughly 67% of the nation's naval commanders who participated in Maegor's conquests originate from This academy.
--
The duchy of Saltcliffe was during Aenys reign ruled by the house of Saltcliffe. Said house was exterminated during the third drowned god revolt, along with the lordly house of Sunderly.
The new lord was a Stormlander Captain from the royal Army, by the name of William Von Drakesgrave, given the lordly name of William Wallace.
The duchy capital, and the island itself was renamed Braveheart. As a city, Braveheart doesn't stand out at all, other than being built on a cliff.
--
The duchy of Blacktyde is ruled over by the titular house, and from the titular city of Blacktyde.
The island was the site for the fourth drowned god rebellion, which was quickly defeated by Duke Blacktyde.
The city walls has a green and black checkered pattern, emulating it's flag. It was the only city on the island.
---
The island of great Wyk(Renamed Hammerhorn by King Aenys) was one of the two centers for the first drowned god rebellion, and also the site of the fifth one. Like the Blacktyde one, this one was put down by the local Duke, though the rebellion lasted much longer(roughly 5 months) as the rebels hid in the mountains.
The capital city is Hammerhorn, located along the south side of the island.
Hammerhorn is the largest and most Iron rich island of the Duchy, which in turn has made it the richest of the Iron Islands duchies.
Other cities on the island at the time were Laketown by corpse lake, and Sealskin City.
--
Old Wyk(Renamed Drumm) was the center for the drowned faith, and as such it was the first center of rebellion from the drowned god. As a response, Aenys put a lot of money into building a religious center for the Faith on the islands on Drumm. Not too surprisingly, Duke Drumm took the prospect of a second massive rebellion(And the prospective fines) very seriously.
As such he personally crushed several attempts at rebellion before they could begin.
The capital of Drumm is Drumm City. It is the seat of the Faith on the Islands, and the Duchy's only city.
--
Harlaw is the most populated of the Islands, and along with the Lonely Light, one of the only two duchies that didn't have a drowned god rebellion.
The reason for this is that similarly to house Drumm, House Harlaw crushed any and all attempts at rebellion before the could begin, hanging hundreds of drowned men all around the islands.
House Harlaw was also amongst the first converters to the Faith of the Seven amongst the Ironborn nobility, and once the religion was outlawed, the house would lead the charge to purge the religion completely from the island.
The two cities of the time was the capital of Harlaw City and Volmark.
--
The story of Orkmont during this period was one of treason and betrayal against the crown.
The center of the sixth drowned god rebellion, house Orkwood and Tawney came home from the conquest of the Stepstones laden with riches, so much in fact that, rather than protecting the septs they instead let mobs burn down the temples, and simply paid Aenys fines.
This was an intentional failure of upholding their feudal obligations, and thus treason. As such, following the six drowned god rebellion, Aenys had had enough of both these slaps in the face, as well as Ironborn rebellions general.
The rebellion was crushed by 4 battalions of the royal army. The army then arrested both Duke Orkwood and count Tawney, and by royal decree, both were stripped of all their lands, titles and incomes.
The new Duke was also an army captain, a Reachman by the name of Arthur Von Oakenshield, named Arthur Pendragon by King Aenys.
The island, and it's capital city, was renamed to Camelot.
The army stayed, and Camelot would eventually become the local center for the Royal army. Originally however, the battalions were only supposed to stay until "Such a time where yearly rebellions is no longer a danger."
This assignment meant that not only was the army there and ready to crush any new rebellions, but the four thousand men were still there when the war of the Faith broke out, thus by their very presence affecting the way the region turned during the Civil War.
--
The Lonely Light was during this period the westernmost outpost of the kingdom of Westeros(Since having lost that distinction to the Targaryen Islands). It is also the only part of the Islands where Iron isn't mined, it industry instead exclusively being related to fishing the sunset sea.
The island is an extremely remote duchy, heavily separated from the rest of the world. It does however have an important economic niche. Namely a monopoly on whalin in a truly massive part of the sunset sea.
When Aenys Chartered the Lonely Light Whaling company, he did not make the mistake that would lead to the shivering sea being a battleground later down the line. Instead he granted the company of The Lonely Light "All the rights of the waters west of the westernmost point of cape kraken, and north of the Reach.
Needless to say, even with the quota of how many whales they could catch each year, this has made the duchy very, very rich, though not a place anyone visits unless they have too.
-
On another note, the lonely light also served as the base from which the first circumnavigation of Planetos was launched two years before the War of the Faith.
-
The only city of the Duchy, was, and is The city of the Lonely Light.
---
Extract from "The King's Councils: Aenys the first, Volume 1" by Rohanne Von Tyrosh. Historian serving Maegor the First, the breaker of chains.